The Triune Work of Salvation: Part 2a

The Wills of God

You may remember in our first sermon, we briefly looked into the will of God is and is not, and for that we looked at the will that man possesses, and for that we looked at the the beginning where man died and was alienated from God. Here is an attempt to build on what we seen of the will of God.

There is the will of command and will of decree

free will and relative freedom of choice

Now, what’s the difference between the objective and the subjective will of God? The objective will of God has been described as “God’s revealed will”. It is not based on feeling or emotion, but truth and fact. For example, the Ten Commandments, the teachings of Jesus, and the “general call” of the command for everyone to ‘repent and believe the gospel’. This is what’s used in verse 9 (the objective sense). We’ll get more into that yet, the reason I mention that is for comparison. The subjective will of God is more so based on His desires and feelings [God’s]. Or, the subjective will is how the objective will (the commands of God) is applied in your own life. i.e. the command to ‘repent and believe’ or like 1 Th. 4:3 says “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality”.

The W.E. Vines Expository Dictionary says “Subjectively, the will that is being spoken of as the emotion of being desirous, rather than as the thing willed; of the will of God”.

In at least 4 other letters Paul mentions these same words “by the will of God” (used in the subjective [??or objective??] sense) specifically in regards to his apostleship, which is directly related to his conversion. His call to salvation and apostleship was by divine appointment, even from before his birth Gal 1:15-16. In the same way that when a sinner is converted it’s not simply his own capability to make a decision to follow Jesus, subjectively. No, it must first be the objective will of God that changes the mans heart toward God. Because in his natural state, man wants nothing to do with God (Rom 8:7). But when God (subjectively) wills to have mercy on a sinner then he is made alive in Christ through God. It is God who gives life to the dead. The dead do not have some sort of capability to “make a decision”.

With certainty, we can say that before Paul was changed, it was not his will or desire to serve Jesus Christ Acts 26:9-11. But when a man is chosen of God (for His own purpose) then he must and will undoubtedly be saved according to the purpose of His will. 2 Timothy 1:9 “who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,”

Let’s look at a few different verses to further illustrate this. Starting with the next two verses in this passage: Ephesians 1:5 “In love, He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,” Lord willing we’ll look more into this verse in the future, but what I want us to see now is that before you and I were created (as seen in v.4), before anyone was created, in eternity passed (already something you and I cannot fully comprehend), the text say “He”—that is God, predestined us to to himself as sons. Thats long before you and I had made any good moral decisions… “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…” Tit 3:5.

v. 11 “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will”. There’s no going against that. You cannot resist His will (Ro. 9:19). These verses are in the subjective sense, whatever God wills will come to pass. Let’s look at the objective verse 9 “making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ”

listen to Romans 9:15–16 (the NASB renders this a bit clearer) “For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills [that is, the man who really “wants” to be saved–no one wants to be saved apart from God’s spirit working in us] or the man who runs [that is, the man who is running away from God, the man who is being convicted but does not want to leave his sin, remember Jonah?], but on God who has mercy [that means, no matter what you may think of God, if He wills for you to be saved, you will be genuinely converted in due time.]” Lets read it again and see how we think of it now, “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”

…God’s will will come to pass in regards to His creation, … and yes, even in the salvation of the all the souls that have been elected from before the world began, and none can stay His hand!

You may say, ‘but what about sin? Does God want me to sin?’ The obvious answer to that you already know. But how does that work with the sovereignty of God, in that I can do nothing except God wills it…

Lamentations 3:37 “Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?”